With 1.2 million views on YouTube, the video ‘What is the Qur’an: A Christian Reads the Qur’an’ is easily the most viewed video from the Emir-Stein Center, yet it is also the shortest, at only 3 minutes and 51 seconds. While I expected an impartial introductory video with no need for deceit, this was not what I found.
Dr. Garry Wills begins by explaining that the Qur’an is a set of revelations from God. He never uses the word ‘claims’ and refers to Muhammad as Prophet. He details how Judaism, Christianity and Islam all affirm that there is one God, ignoring the huge differences between the God of Christianity and the God of Islam, and emphasizes that Jews, Christians and Muslims are all set apart as ‘People of the Book’. This is an interesting choice of words, as the Qur’an calls only Jews and Christians People of the Book. Unity between the three religions’ religious texts is also impossible. The Bible disproves Islam, which forces Islam to claim that the Bible is corrupted. Muslims cannot revere the texts or appreciate them in any way, contrary to what the Emir-Stein Center would have you believe. And this is aside from all the huge changes in divine law that the Qur’an presents in comparison to the Gospel message.
Wills then goes on to say: ‘We believers in One God are on the same team as it were, and should protect one another’s place of worship, listed in the Qur’an as Monasteries, Churches, Synagogues and Mosques.’ Wills seems to suggest the Qur’an tells us to protect those four places. In reality, it simply lists them as places of worship: ‘And were it not that Allah checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And Allah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might.’ (22:40) The ‘name of Allah is mentioned’ in these places, but in light of the Qur’an’s other teachings about how Jews and Christians teach falsehood and must be converted, killed, or subjugated, this is essentially irrelevant. If Muslims do not engage in jihad war with ‘infidels’, Allah reveals the following in Surah 8:73: ‘And those who became infidels are friends one to another. If you do not do this, there will be sedition in the land and a big vandalizing’. A verse later in Surah 8:74, the reward is set out: ‘And those who believed and emigrated and performed jihad for the sake of Allah, and those who gave asylum and helped, those are the true believers; they will receive forgiveness and generous provisions’.
Who are infidels according to Allah? We can see this in Surah 5:72-73, where Allah decrees: ‘Infidels, indeed, are those who said, “Surely Allah is the Christ, son of Mary.” And the Christ said, “O children of Israel, serve Allah, my lord and your lord.” Surely whoever partners with Allah, so indeed, Allah forbids him the garden. And his abode is the fire, and the unjust will have no helpers. Infidels, indeed, are those who said, “Surely Allah is the third of three.” And there is no god except one god, and if they do not refrain from what they are saying, a painful torment will touch those who became infidels among them.’ Jews and Christians, the ‘infidels’ that Muslims are commanded to engage in war against and kill or subjugate, are also described in Surah 98:6: ‘Surely those who became infidels, from the People of the Book and polytheists, will abide in the fire of hell forever. Those are the worst of the creatures’. Surah 98:7 reads: ‘Surely those who believed and did good deeds, those are the best of the creatures’.
Dr. Wills then says that ‘Muhammad is the seal of the Prophets; not as cancelling former covenants, but as confirming them’. Let’s ignore the fact that the Qur’an completely reverses what the Bible says about God’s will regarding unbelievers and concentrate on the logical repercussions of this statement. Unless Wills says that according to Islam, Biblical texts are not corrupted, which would disprove Islam, he has to argue that they are corrupted. But if this is the case, how can Muhammad uphold any of the scripture? When it is all written off as corrupted and hence irrelevant for today, with the Qur’an being the only perfect and uncorrupted scripture, Muhammad is upholding nothing but his own word.
Wills says that the Qur’an includes more poetry than legislation, and while this is partly true, it isn’t true in the way Wills would have us believe. The entire Qur’an is poetical and was revealed in a very flowing form, but the entire Qur’an is also considered in Islam to be the direct, perfect, unchangeable, perfectly preserved word and command of Allah. It is all divine legislation. The only way to argue against this would be by invoking the doctrine of abrogation (cf. Qur’an 2:106), which holds that some of the revealed scripture is now irrelevant and hence not entirely divine command.
While the Qur’an does not set ethical norms, it does set ethical commands. Wills’ point is the same here, but when we remember that God always what is defines good and bad. The ethical standards of Christianity and Islam are good by their own standards; the commands of God are always good by definition. Yet according to Allah, what we see in Surah 5:38 is good: ‘the male thief and the female thief, so cut off their hands, a reward of what they earned as a punishment from Allah’, but it is not good by the standards Wills is trying to establish.
Wills details how the Qur’an stress mercy in dealing with God’s fellow creatures, but this is remarkably devious. Allah is merciful to those who surrender; Allah does not love anyone else, and in some cases deliberately seals their hearts. Usama Dakdok writes: ‘True Muslims do not seek peace if they have the upper hand (See also verses 4:104 and 47:35). Allah proves true believers by allowing them to be martyrs’. We see this in Surah 4:139-141: ‘And do not be weak, and do not grieve; and you have the upper hand if you were believers. If a wound has touched you, so indeed, a wound like it has also touched the people before. And such are the days we alternate between the people. And that Allah may know those who believed, and he takes martyrs from among you. And Allah does not love the unjust. And that Allah may purify those who believed and destroy the infidels’.
According to Wills, in Islam ‘force is allowed only for self-defence and never as a way of spreading religion’. This is just a bald-faced lie. Wills says he has studied the Qur’an for years. If that is true, he must be aware that the Qur’an commands killing in over 70 verses. Such verses include 2:193, ‘And engage in war with them until there be no sedition and the religion be to Allah. So if they desist, so there will be no transgression except on the unjust’ and Surah 2:244, ‘And engage in war for the sake of Allah, and know that Allah is hearing, knowing’. You can see various Islamic groups very carefully undertake the will of Allah in a very thorough documentary film called ‘Art Of Imposture’ on my website, narrated by Usama Dakdok and created by ‘NTAuthority’, showing exactly the justification for every such action.
Wills adds: ‘Dealings with non-Muslims should be meticulously fair and never extortionate’. This contradicts Allah in Surah 9:29: ‘Engage in war with those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day. Nor forbid what Allah and his messenger forbid, nor believe in the religion of the truth among those who have been given the book until they pay the jizya out of hand and they are subdued’. This hardly seems ‘meticulously fair’; it extorts money out of non-Muslims in exchange for their right to live. Even though Wills insinuated that non-Muslim houses of worship were held as equally sacred in Islam, non-Muslims who do not pay this second-class citizen religious tax are not allowed in the mosque, as we see in Surah 9:18: ‘Surely only those who believed in Allah and the last day and perform the prayer and bring the legal alms and fear no one except Allah can visit the mosques of Allah, so perhaps those will be among the guided’.
While acknowledging Islam’s allowance of polygamy, although equating it to the teachings of other religions in order to legitimise it, Wills claims that ‘women are highly honoured’ in Islam, even retaining dowry rights if divorced, ‘carving out an area of women’s right unparalleled in the 7th century’. In reality, women are not highly honoured in Islam; they are held as half as intelligent as men (Surah 2:282), as essentially property when married (Surah 4:24). They also must be veiled (Surah 24:31, 33:59) and child marriage is permissible (Surah 65:4). In Surah 4:34. Allah commands: ‘Men are in charge of women by what Allah preferred some of them above the others and by what they spend out of their money. So good [women] are obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. And of whom you fear rebellion, so preach to them and separate from them in the beds and scourge them. So if they obey you, so do not seek a way against them.’ Arguing that Islam honours women by any regular standards, the standards Emir-Stein appeals to, is facile. Nowhere in the Qur’an is a woman allowed to divorce her husband. Islam did carve out an unparalleled area of woman’s rights, but this ‘area’ has been as an unprecedented oppressor for women for centuries, not as a great example for women’s equal rights.
Wills claims that the Qur’an is a book of many levels and great depths, with the video showing co-existence (false), ecology (irrelevant), mercy (Islamic mercy; so by Biblical and even Western secular standards false), ethics (Islamic ethics; so by Biblical and even Western secular standards false), forgiveness (false), prophets (false), women’s rights (false) and justice (Islamic justice; again by Biblical as well as Western secular standards false), all without any substance to those claims.
He finishes by saying ‘even non-Muslims can learn from it, as Pope Francis has proclaimed’. I agree with this and would suggest everyone read a good translation of the Qur’an, however, you will not learn any virtue from this book. You will only learn surrender, hate and subjugation, directly from Allah.